Dead Space 2: Severed DLC Review

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by Curse
Basic Information:
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
North American Release ...

Overview
Full throttle action for less than $7? You've came to the right place! Severed tells the tale of Gabe Weller & Lexine Murdoch (Recognize them from extraction?) trying to protect themselves and escape the Sprawl, sounding like a regular day out in the life of Isaac? You're not too far off

Gameplay
As to be expected, not a lot is different in terms of gameplay. It's still the same old 'make your way to this objective' style, where you'll find yourself following the navigator throughout the ship, and this time a mine (The mine suits the game really well, but I'll go into that later) No new weapons to be found here, only a return of the Twitcher enemies that fit right into this physically dark expansion pack. With no actual new gameplay components, you can only feel disappointment on that front

Twitchers will leave your head in a spin

Singleplayer
Despite the lack of new features, I still really enjoyed this DLC as it was completely packed with action from start to finish. The dial for the pace is set to 11 throughout, and only changes once or twice. This non stop action makes Gabe appear to be a very one dimensional character, as you'll be constantly fighting, with no thought, and there aren't the same puzzles as in the full game. This does make you appreciate how smart Isaac is in comparison. You'll start off in an entirely new location, the mines. As you can imagine this is a dark place to be, necromorphs will be lurking in the corners and this keeps the fear aspect high, as it's pretty much brand new territory. After the mines however, you'll find that you're playing at the same time as Isaac is fulfilling his own story, which is a nice feature as you can see the aftermath of Isaac's necromorph destruction. Despite the lack of real story featured here, it's a fun action packed couple of hours. And a couple of hours is all you'll really get here, but considering the price, you're definitely entertained enough for those two hours.

Gabe still looks bad-ass

Technical
It all looks as crisp and graphically excellent as the full game, which is nice to see. And this is due to you re-visiting areas that you played with Isaac. But my favorite part of this was the mine at the very start. It just looks very different to the constant futuristic space station we're all used to. And they've used the space and lighting very well, you'll find necromorphs lurking in unexpected placed, aswell as this, the Twitcher enemies manipulate the very little light down there very well. It all sounds great aswell, both character voices and the screams of the necromorphs sound fantastic, and it follows the high standard set by the full game

Trophies
A nice set of trophies to be had here, as they're fairly varied. There are hidden trophies for completing chapters and for finishing it on certain difficulties, aswell as event based trophies which are a nice addition and add to the re-playability of this dlc.

Closing Thoughts
All in all it's well worth the money, it's a great action packed couple of hours, it's just a shame there is no new real gameplay or much of a story. But then again, you can't expect much more for $7 dlc!

Gameplay: 6/10
Nothing wrong with it, just nothing new. But what is there works really well

Singleplayer: 8/10
Action packed from start to finish, just not enough variation, or real narrative

Technical: 8/10
Looks fantastic, especially in the mines. Would've been nice to see some more new areas instead of returning to territory we've already played on